Jim-Pops Loc: Granbury, Texas

Shot this about a year ago and didn't have much PP knowledge except sliders. At the time thought was OK but now I think much better.
This version
#1 is starting point
# 2 First layer No adjustments Dupe twice Layer #2 open shadows, whites and sharpen a bit. Add Saturation mask and reduce blue on Far Left white house. Now using the last original dupe I gave the sky more detail and richness used CRA and -Highlights for sky and mask.
#3 Picture is Above flattened and open in Aurora 2018. Kept its original adjustment after opening, accepted and you see the final picture.

If anyone would like to try editing this they can Drop Box link is here....
https://www.dropbox.com/s/u2wbzvavj3rua4z/Harber%20Lakes%20Challange.dng?dl=0

Original

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#2 Before HDR

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kpmac Loc: Ragley, La

Quite a difference. Knowledge is power.

R.G. Loc: Scotland

Hi Jim-Pops. I won't criticise your HDR treatment, but to my eye you're making a common mistake that I used to be guilty of myself. Whenever you lighten darks or darken highlights you reduce the overall contrast of the shot, and usually it requires a hefty dose of the Contrast slider to compensate. For some reason it's easy to underestimate how much contrast is needed. It must be the way our brains are used to compensating for extremes of lighting. I usually find that when you up the contrast substantially you need to keep an eye on the darks to stop them from becoming too pronounced, so I balance Contrast with lifting the Blacks/Shadows.

Anyway, for comparison, here's my edit where I've lightened the shadows and also added contrast. That and a few tweaks to overall saturation and taming the green and yellow of the grass.

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Jim-Pops Loc: Granbury, Texas

<Whenever you lighten darks or darken highlights you reduce the overall contrast of the shot, and usually it requires a hefty dose of the Contrast slider to compensate. For some reason it's easy to underestimate how much contrast is needed. It must be the way our brains are used to compensating for extremes of lighting. I usually find that when you up the contrast substantially you need to keep an eye on the darks to stop them from becoming too pronounced, so I balance Contrast with lifting the Blacks/Shadows.>

Thank RG I also think with all the editing/sliders we do we loose reality when considering blacks and contrast, actually a bit of everything. I see so much over process sometime hard to get back to the correct balance.

Like to hear more opinions.

R.G. Loc: Scotland

I sometimes think that what you need in editing is an eye for over-processing, and the ability to mitigate the unwanted effects of ramping up the processing.

kubota king Loc: NW , Pa.

All adjustments done in camera raw filter . Something a little different . A look more like if a big cloud was blocking the bright sun . Tommy

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magnetoman Loc: Purbeck, Dorset, UK

Jim, I think RG's version is about what I'd aim at, perhaps with a tad less yellow, and I agree with his other comments on processing.
It all comes down to personal taste and the look that pleases.
When I started digital pp I came across the HDR look, which seemed very popular at the time (about 4-5 years ago), and I adopted it for a while. More recently I tend to only use it for a few images and prefer to see more contrast. I've also said more than once in FYC, I'm not afraid of the dark. To my mind there's a danger in being able to draw so much from the shadows - a loss of reality. Just because the camera can record those details doesn't mean we need to see them, it's unnatural, and there's that noise thing always lurking there, in the dark areas.
So, all-in-all, I like your finished version but would definitely add contrast (to taste!).

lloydl2 Loc: Gilbert, AZ

All adjustments done in Lightroom classic cc a combination of sliders, graduated filter, radials and the brush tool to add contrast and make the lighting more interesting

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